why I hate travelling
I love walking and I love riding my bike. But going on the train, the bus, the tube or the plane is something I try to avoid at all costs. But in this day and age it’s not easy. And people are all so obsessed with travelling. I just don’t get it.
Here is one example that I really don’t understand. A two week holiday to a destination that requires a long haul flight. Then without any thought of trying to recover from the jetlag, a full program dictated by the guide book. A million photos and ticking off virtually all the tourist traps. And after sleeping the sleep of the dead, rising early to do it all again the next day. Perhaps even taking a tour bus to see the surrounding region. Sightseeing abhors me. Why people do it I cannot understand. Ok, I’ll admit that there are places like the Taj Mahal that do deserve some attention, but most places listed in the guidebooks are a complete waste of time. And why I should spend my holiday doing that I don’t know.
A holiday is just that, a break. A chance to stop and do nothing. Eat, sleep, read and ponder. With no plan or itinerary of any sort. That just sounds like work to me. That was the whole point of going on holiday: to get away from such things. I get up, I go to the beach. Have a swim. Eat an ice-cream. Read. Take an afternoon nap. Dine out in the evening. A few drinks and conversation. Job done.
I remember spending nearly a whole day going to see the Al Hambra Palace. What a fucking waste of time. First there was the drive there. Then there was the queue. After parking of course. It was a long wait. And there were signs warning that they may run out of tickets that day. Very hot sunshine and standing in a queue. And then a half hour timed ticket. Ok, so it was kind of interesting. But given the choice between that and staying home and taking a nap, I would certainly have chosen the latter.
So I hate sight seeing. But tourism thrives on it. And it would die without it. It’s probably a good thing that there aren’t more people like me.
And then of course there is the travelling itself. I have a holiday home in Sweden, out in the country. It takes around 8 hours door to door from my place in London. I have to sort of kid myself that I’m not actually travelling but just imagining it.
First a drive to the airport. Which is already pretty annoying as I don’t even want to get in the car. Then hanging around for the coach that takes you to the terminal. Packed full of people with their heavy luggage. Then queues. Then more hanging around. Then the flight itself. Packed in a tiny little seat breathing extremely dry air and hoping that nothing got broken in your luggage. The slow walk out of the plane. The further wait for the luggage to arrive. Then picking up the rental car followed by three hour drive. Trees and more trees. And finally we arrive.
But this isn’t a tourist trap. No crowds. No one trying to sell you little union jacks or mini Eifel Towers. There is just quiet. And nobody around. The wind is still and even the birds are quiet. The opposite of London. So in spite of my loathsome opinion of travelling, I endure it, because the end result is so worthwhile. But the return trip is waiting at the end; oh joy.
Try and tell anyone that I detest any form of sight seeing and they look at me as though I said that I didn’t like chocolate. They all seem to like the idea of taking time off to go travelling. Why not just do nothing for three months? That would do you so much more good.
Aside from visiting my cottage in Sweden and a couple of weeks on the beach, I don’t see much point in holidays. Why do we need a break in the first place? If you are fully absorbed in what you are doing, then why would you want to leave it? If you have taken the time to design your life so that it is filled with all the things that you love and enjoy then why would you want to leave it for a moment. When I was studying Sound Engineering a few years ago I had a tutor who said that he hadn’t taken a holiday in 15 years. The other people on the course thought of him as a workaholic, but I was impressed by his commitment and just that he loved what he did.
True, there is a particular state of mind that we experience when we take ourselves out of our day to day lives for a length of time. And that state of mind can be quite expansive and allow us to view our lives from another perspective. But why not make that part of your day to day life. Design your life so that it’s more like being on holiday rather than being at work. And the boundaries of working life and time off will disappear. Then you won’t feel the need to go away. I like my life and I enjoy living it. I don’t want to take a break from it. And I certainly don’t want to waste my time looking at some monument or church in some foreign country wishing all the time that I was home. It is however a chance to experience regret quite fully.
So the answer is to go on holiday and not to come back. That is to say that ones life becomes a holiday. Your life is filled with fun things to do and it is all of your own making. If you get fed up or bored, then you can change it at any time. And as for sampling other cultures, I’m all for that. But not a two week whistle stop tour. You might as well look at a few photos. Go and live there for a year or so. Learn the language, pay bills, make friends with the locals, get a job.
Tourism. Down with tourism. Don’t tell me I need a break or that I need to see the Parthenon or the Pyramids. And don’t tell me that it would be great to go round the world. And if you are going, don’t ask me to me to come. I really don’t like chocolate, and I’m not from Mars.